The overseas content market has doubled in 10 years

 ■ The overseas content market has doubled in 10 years

HUMANMEDIA has published a database of the Japanese and global content market. Let’s take a look.

The overseas market for Japanese content has doubled in ten years to exceed ¥2 trillion in 2020. In 2011 this figure was ¥865.3 billion, but ballooned to ¥1.4124 trillion in 2016. By 2020, this figure is expected to reach ¥2.208 trillion. The so-called Cool Japan Policy aims to expand this market.

The anime sector represents the largest share of this overseas market. The sector accounted for ¥266.9 billion in 2011, but with the expansion of overseas streaming, this figure reached ¥767.6 billion in 2016. It is predicted to reach ¥1.702 trillion in 2020. The next fastest growing sector is online gaming apps for smartphones, followed by manga publication and distribution, which accounts for 80% of the overall publishing sector.

Despite a decline in the Japanese population and market size, these sectors have experienced an ongoing and slight increase to reach a scale of ¥13 trillion in 2020. In 2016 the sector reached ¥12.4898 trillion, representing an increase of ¥309 billion, or 2.5% from the previous year. In 2011, online media accounted for 13.9% of the overall market, reaching a scale of ¥1.6343 trillion. By 2020, it is expected that this will have grown by 34.2% to reach ¥4.4502 trillion. While there is great consternation at the decline of the domestic market, online content may be bucking the trend.

The largest global market sizes in 2016 were the United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, in that order. In 2016, the market size of 16 countries was ¥101.9 trillion, with the United States representing around 45%, China around 13.5% and Japan around 11%. The United States market was around ¥45 trillion, or about three times the size of China in second place. The United States and China dominate the market, with China experiencing growth.

The domestic media content market and its affiliated industries amount to ¥53 trillion, or 10% or GDP. This is almost as much as the amount invested in construction. The true value of HUMANMEDIA is its analyses that encompass these related industries. The content industry itself may not have such a large volume, but the size of its affiliated industries and the knock-on external effects that it has highlights the value of promoting this industry.